Case Study
Assess Enterprise Impacts & Drive Key Findings to Closure
Risk Data
Client
Fortune 50 Financial Institution
Project Overview
The Client sought external expertise and execution support to help advise on and manage the closure of a major audit issue related to data management. Reference Point focused on understanding issue requirements, assessed multiple years of deliverables, and coordinated with key stakeholders across all business divisions, Enterprise Risk, and Internal Audit to close gaps and submit the final closure package.
- Several years prior, the Client’s external auditor identified an issue across the enterprise related to the management and governance of mission critical data.
- More recently, the Client established an Enterprise Data Program which resulted in new standards and caused misalignment between Divisional Data Management & Governance and Enterprise Standards.
- A trend of resource attrition resulted in an incomplete knowledge of key decisions, missing deliverables, and a lack of awareness regarding auditor requirements.
- Additionally, the Client’s new General Auditor and Chief Data Officer provided fresh perspectives and expectations related to the issue closure approach.
Solution
- Reference Point deployed a focused team with deep knowledge of data management, largescale program management experience, and a proven track record of managing complex audit issues to closure.
- The project team swiftly reviewed issue requirements, existing project plans, and several years of deliverables to synthesize the current state and build a program plan to close the issue.
- As part of the program, Reference Point defined an agile engagement model for capturing, prioritizing, and implementing stakeholder feedback from business divisions, Enterprise Risk, Internal Audit, and the Enterprise Chief Data Office, enabling flexibility for the team when approaching the final submission date.
- Leveraging prior experiences, the team also defined best practices and standard materials for presenting to Internal Audit and tracking remediation progress.
Impact
- Reference Point worked with various groups to successfully submit the closure package on time and with ongoing engagement and sign-off from all required stakeholders.
- The team created a forward-looking risk register with 12 additional gaps to prioritize outside the issue scope as part of the Enterprise Data Program.
- The materials and processes Reference Point developed are still actively utilized for presenting action plan progress to Internal Audit and Enterprise Risk.
- The team performed multiple impact assessments against controls, industry standards, and internal policies to help inform future decisions related to Data Management & Governance priorities.
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